The Spider Queen is a very powerful and effective model in both Strategy Battle Game and War of the Ring.  But the model itself leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion.  It recalls some of PJ's terrifying Shelob but lacks any "action" in it's pose.  It's just standing there, basking in the sun. 

A while back though I came across an article online (I think it was on GW's own website shortly after the Fall of the Necromancer supplement was released) where someone did a chop job on the Spider Queen and Shelob models with cool results.  Naturally I stole the idea.  :-)

These pics were mostly taken with an old and dying camera that could not focus well in short distances so they are a lot more blurry than I'd like to post.  But as they are just Work-in-Progress images and can't be reproduced I don't have much choice. 

I started by deciding where the two models would best join.  I wanted as much of the legs of Shelob as possible but needed the Spider Queen's rear most segment to capture the "swarming children" on her body (part of her special rules).  I did a little adjusting of the legs from Shelob's default pose but not too much.  The pics with my old Blackberry are "proof of start" images for a competition.

Once I was happy with the pose I crafted a dead tree out of wire and GreenStuff, shaping it specifically to support her body, give her an even more aggressive position, and keep her playable by allowing other models into base contact (ok...maybe not Trolls but most foot or cavalry).

As part of my work I wanted to get some inspiration of PJ's Shelob...

...but mostly was looking to real spiders for my Queen as well as my Giant Spiders.  The Queen is based on the Huntsman Spiders that carry their young on their back.  These images not for those with a fear of spiders so click at your own risk...